picture of Silvia Meacci
He turns one hundred and twenty-one on Tour de France. In fact, it debuted in 1903 and was created for commercial purposes by the French sports newspaper “Auto-Vélo”. Géo Lefrève, a young journalist expert in cycling, had the innovative idea of organizing a six-day race to raise interest in the event and sell more copies. The winner’s yellow jersey owes its color to that of the newspaper. Traditionally the tour almost always ends in Paris. This year the final destination is Nice because the Olympics will be held in the capital in July. On 29 June 2024, for the very first time, the Tour will start from Italy and precisely from Florence and will cross Emilia Romagna and Piedmont. The first stage, dedicated to Gino Bartali, arrives at Rimini passing through the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines and the Adriatic coasts, for a total of 206 kilometers and 3600 meters of altitude difference. Various provisions are in place to ensure the safety of the event. In particular, the positioning of eight defibrillators has been planned along the route between Florence and the Tre Faggi pass. These are Heartsine samaritan® 500P AED equipment, equipped with a Rotaid Solid Plus case and a two-metre totem to allow identification.
The “Maillot jaune” 2023 Jonas Vingegaard aims for his third consecutive victory. Among the rivals: Primoz Roglic, Tadej Pogacar, Mathieu van der Poel. Everyone aspires to the tour jerseys: the yellow, for the general classification, the polka-dotted one, for the best climber, the green, for the points classification and the white for the under 26s. France is the nation that has won the most jerseys yellow, 36 times, but the last victory dates back to 1985. The first Italian ever to win the Grande Boucle (“Big Bush”, to describe the twisted path) in 1924 was the Venetian Ottavio Bottecchia, called the “Bricklayer of Friuli”, who wore the yellow jersey continuously from the first to the last day of the race. Gino Bartali won in 1938 and 1948, Coppi in ’49 and ’52, and, following, in the sixties, Gastone Nencini and Felice Gimondi. In 1998 Marco Pantani obtained the yellow jersey and ten years ago Nibali.
In Florence in Piazza della Repubblica there is a large display to count the days remaining Grand Depart. The city is turning yellow with flags, decorations, yellow shirts. The presentation of the teams will take place on June 27th at Piazzale Michelangelo. In the three regions touched by the Tour, extraordinary openings of museums, cycling events and cycle walks were organised. Would you like to take a photo with the “Grand Départ” trophy? Until June 27th in Turin, in the atrium of the Grattacielo della Regione you will find it exhibited there for the delight of enthusiasts. But you can chase it because it will be visible in a traveling exhibition. On June 30th the second stage dedicated to Pantani will arrive in Bologna. It would be nice to follow in the footsteps of the tour by planning a little cycling holiday, right? On the first of July, be found under the Mole Antonelliana, in Turin. The tour will also arrive there. In Tuscany in Ponte a Ema Il Gino Bartali Cycling Museum It will be open from 17 to 30 June with extended opening hours, workshops for children and guided tours.
In honor of the great Tuscan champion it will be possible to visit the “Memorial of the deportations”, in viale Giannotti 81 in Florence, exceptionally open from 22nd to 30th June with free guided tours. Bartali’s name appears on the wall of the righteous in Jerusalem, in fact his name is not remembered only for sport. Linked to Archbishop Dalla Costa, he worked as a courier for the Resistance, transporting documents by bike that were useful in saving many Jews.
For the two Florentine museums, reservations are mandatory: [email protected]
